I have spent a couple of days trying to figure out how I was going to describe the concepts I wanted to talk about. I spent the weekend hosting shows, and that is when it hit me. There is a passive and aggressive way to go about your comedy career. I’ll spend a couple of paragraphs going over what I mean.
A passive way of going about your comedy career
When I say passive what I mean may be different depending on the comedian or type of person you are. You may not write many jokes hindering your ability to move up. You may never get around to emailing bookers and promoters. You may also be one that never sends out avails in a timely manner and kind of let dates “come” to you.
Those are very passive ways of trying to become a full time comedian. There are a lot of downsides to this method of course. It takes longer to gain momentum and in the comedy business all it takes is one unanswered phone call and you are no longer in a club’s rotation. Just accepting what comes your way is a stress free way of pursuing comedy because there is no pressure to bite and claw your way up. You just wait for a booker to need someone and you are good.
The problems of course arise when you are actually paying bills. Bills are not passive. They come every month whether you like it or not. It is hard to have a good credit score when you only have a handful of shows a month. The passive approach are for those that may have a second job or other interest that pulls them away from doing this full time. Maybe you only have a couple days a year in which you want to be out of town doing comedy. Then this is a decent approach.
The Aggressive approach
When you see a comedian on the tonight show, or someone in a sketch on SNL, what you are seeing are people taking the aggressive approach to their comedy careers. This is the rise and grind folks. The ones that will move to New York or LA and sleep in a gutter just go after it. This is obviously the more stressful of the two ways of going about it.
The person who is out there getting it are always emailing and calling and networking. They have a friend who knows someone that can get them the email of the one gal that can get them a spot on this show under a laundromat and they do not hesitate to email them out of the blue. These are the people that will call up bars in a town they are going to visit their parents at and see if they can line up shows. They are always doing something to advance their careers.
Problems with this course is that it can burn you out. There is a finite number of times a person can get no return email before they just move on. The rise and grind mentality of going after comedy is very much draining on those that may be more introverted or suffer from depression or a mental illness that interferes with their ability to endure negative outcomes.
My approach
I have had ups and downs like a lot of people who are comedians. Mostly downs. When I first started, I was pretty aggressive. I was emailing any and every booker and promoter I had information on. I got work. Then the great recession hit. I went to college so I could not just do comedy any time I wanted. I was passive for those years, just getting what came my way. Still writing. Still going to open mics, but comedy had change so much. Bar shows shrank, so one nighters were further away, making it difficult to do and then get to class the next day.
When I graduated college, it was hard to get back into that get out and get em mode. I was finally free, but I had bills and responsibilities that would have suffered had I just not worked and done comedy full time. Once I was able to go after comedy full time though, I was stuck in this weird cycle where I wanted to pursue comedy hard and be working almost every weekend, but there was a mental aspect to it I think that dragged me down.
I have talked to many comedians who are not bothered by it, but I do feel a little defeated when I am sending avails to places and hear nothing back. Spending hours sending emails and getting no replies can be very frustrating. I know it is part of the “game”, but when you are asking for a chance from hundreds of people, it drains you mentally and you just back away for awhile…which is not ideal. For instance. In 2019 I was having a great start to the year. I was sending out avails and trying to get in contact with people and by spring my dates had dried up. That got me down and It took until winter to pick back up because I had stopped doing all the things I was doing for years up to that point.
The comedy industry is hard. That is why so many larger comedians will have an agent or someone to book their stuff. It is so much easier to deal with everything else when the most draining aspect of a comedy career is taken care of. The thing is, the vast majority of working comedians you see do not have an agent. They are emailing people and calling and trying to get a bar that is next to the town they will be performing in to call them back. I would be lying if I didn’t want to just become a parole officer and be done.
What approach would I take? Aggressive. Why? It is very hard in this industry to make a living when there are a thousand other comedians that are knocking down doors to be the next big star. That is why there are millions of podcast with comedians and if you are on social media, you have a couple of comedians on your friend’s list. Everyone is trying to climb the same narrow staircase, and if you are waiting your turn you may never get it. I am 41, and I think of all the years I wasted just thinking my skill as a comedian would get my calendar filled. That is not the case. You can’t just build the chapel you also have to get people in the building.
So, this is the start of my count down. I have been doing this long enough and so I will be done after a time. I don’t know when, but I will write something on why that is. Until next time.
Riley's Spot 